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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Oral Roberts who wrote (283139)	12/5/2008 3:41:37 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 793939

Jesse Jackson says he'll organize rallies to urge government aid for auto industry * Kimberly S. Johnson, AP Auto Writer * Friday December 5, 2008, 2:54 pm EST DETROIT (AP) -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Friday he will organize rallies in several cities to urge Congress to grant aid to the struggling U.S. automakers. "It's time to go back to the streets for some action," Jackson said after a press conference with minority suppliers and dealers. "We need to show the wealth and depth of pain. It's not the Big Three execs, it's the big 4 million jobs." The civil rights leader and former presidential hopeful spoke while the leaders of General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC were in Washington for their second day of hearings to request up to $34 billion in emergency funding that they say are vital to keep them in business. GM and Chrysler have said they may not be able to pay their bills by the end of this month if they don't get cash soon. Jackson took issue with congressional leaders' criticism of the automakers, saying the banking industry did not have to face such a grilling before Congress. Jackson said he was headed to a GM plant in Lansing, Mich., later Friday to put a face on the jobs that would be lost if Congress denied the companies federal aid. Officials from Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition said they were still determining when and where the rallies in other cities would be held. Minority-owned suppliers and dealers said their situation is just as dire as that of the automakers, because they would no longer get paid should GM or Chrysler shut down. About 77 percent of minority suppliers depend on the companies and provide more than 300,000 jobs across 47 states, said Louis Green, head of the Michigan Minority Business Development Council. "Suppliers need immediate access to capital," Green said. "Once credit lines are closed they're going to lose their contracts." A.V. Fleming of Ford's Minority Dealers Association said 37 dealers are in danger of closing by the end of the year if Ford doesn't get a federal loan or its credit arm doesn't get funding from the government's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. He said it's hard for dealers to survive because of Ford's situation and tight credit markets that make it harder or more expensive for some car buyers to get financing. Over the past several years, the number of minority Ford dealers shrank from 200 to 87, Fleming said. Ford has about 3,800 dealers overall.